Margaret Maron

Judge Deborah Knott is looking forward to a break from married life and the responsibilities of being a mom when she travels to Wrightsville Beach for a summer conference for North Carolina district court judges. But shortly after Deborah arrives, she stumbles upon the strangled corpse of one of her less-admired colleagues, and it doesn't take long before she realizes that the killer may have another target - one much closer to home.

While in New York, Judge Deborah Knott has been asked to deliver a package to Lt. Sigrid Harald of the NYPD. Sigrid offers to swing by the apartment with her husband to pick up the box, but when they reach the apartment, they discover that it is missing and the doorman has been murdered.

Margaret Maron—winner of the most prestigious awards in mystery fiction—returns with another novel featuring her critically acclaimed sleuth Deborah Knott.
Unchecked urbanization has begun to eclipse the North Carolina countryside. As farms give way to shoddy mansions, farmers struggle to slow the rampant growth. In the shadows, corrupt county commissioners use their political leverage to make profitable deals with new developers....

"No one is more surprised than Judge Deborah Knott by her engagement to her childhood friend Dwight Bryant. Stressed out by the impending marriage, Deborah agrees to fill in for a vacationing judge in the hills of Cedar Gap. With its fresh mountain air and gorgeous fall foliage, it's the perfect place to clear her head ... until a local doctor is brutally murdered. Presiding over the probable cause case against the main suspect, Deborah decides the...

It's one month after their wedding, and the future looks bright for Judge Deborah Knott and Sheriff Deputy Dwight Bryant--until a disturbing call from Dwight's 8-year-old son Cal calls him back to Virginia.When he arrives, he is shocked to find that his ex-wife has left the boy alone for almost 24 hours. Worse, as Dwight tries to confront her, she takes the child and leaves town without a word. As Dwight embarks on an all-points search, Deborah hurries...

Murder usually begins at home, and Colleton County, North Carolina, proves no exception. When truck driver and childhood neighbor Dallas Stancil is shot and killed in his own backyard, Judge Deborah Knott figures she owes his memory at least the respectful ritual of taking his widow one of her Aunt Zell's best chicken casseroles. Mistake Number One. Dallas wasn't rich, but with development eating up the farms and forests of North Carolina his land...

While participating in the WomenAid project, a program that builds houses for battered and homeless women, Colleton County district judge Deborah Knott finds herself in the middle of a mystery when her niece is assaulted.

Recently widowed Kate Honeycutt returns to North Carolina and finds that another of her husband's old war buddies from Vietnam has been killed and that the man who may have the answers has disappeared.